In general, a file system is a program (or set of programs) that provides a set of functions related to the storage and retrieval of data. The data may be stored, for example, on a non-volatile storage device (e.g., hard disk) or volatile storage device (e.g., random access memory). Typically, there is a set of data (e.g., file name, access permissions) associated with a file that is referred to as “file metadata.” The file metadata can be accessed during the process of accessing a file.